Frome pupils get free breakfast-to-go from charity

About 50 children accessed Fair Frome's breakfast grab-bags on Monday

Pupils in Somerset are being offered free "grab and go" breakfast bags by a local charity after some schools said their pupils were arriving hungry.

Fair Frome, which said it worked to improve social equality, was handing out the bags from Frome Cricket Club every Monday during term time to those attending Frome College and Selwood School, where there are no breakfast clubs.

The charity said the cost-of-living crisis continued to affect families alongside the growing pressures on working parents and their time in the mornings.

All Frome College students including sixth-formers and all students in Years 5-8 at Selwood Academy can collect the bags which contain fruit, protein bars, juice, and pastries, from 8 till 8.30am.

The bags contain fruit, protein bars, juice, and pastries

Vegan and gluten free options were available, and the service will currently run until the summer holidays when the charity said it would like to continue if it could secure enough funding and volunteers.

About 50 children picked up bags on Monday, with "no questions asked, everyone welcome," said Fair Frome senior coordinator, Lenka Grimes.

"It's important that children feel it's accessible to everybody, and they don't have to show any proof that they're on free school meals, and that there's no stigma," she said.

"Some children just don't have time to eat in the morning.

"We were also concerned with kids eating chocolate and fizzy drinks from the shops on the way to school, so there's also a health element to this."

'Uniforms sold for food'

Fair Frome said it identified a need for the service through conversations with families and children it supported, as well as other agencies.

Frome College told the council of the "huge impact of the cost of living crisis on families", with students often coming to school without breakfast and relying on cereal bars provided by the college.

Selwood Academy told the charity that with exams coming up the school was finding that lots of students were not eating due to worry, but when making use of grab bags with their peers students were more inclined to eat.

Free school meal allowances were not allowed to be used at break, it said, so children had to wait until lunchtime before they could eat which affects their learning.

Family support charity Purple Elephant said some students attending Frome College arrived having had no breakfast and without essentials such as pencil cases, and even uniform which was sometimes sold to afford food.

"This lack of a morning meal adversely affects their [pupils] ability to concentrate and learn through the whole school day, impacting on their future life chances and mental health," said Service Manager Sue Willis.

The charity's food bank is open 3 days a week and supports community members in Frome and the surrounding BA11 area

The cost of living crisis has become worse in Frome, Ms Grimes said, with housing and rental prices going up because it was so popular.

"Since January we've seen a real drop in donations to our food bank, the people that would normally donate - that middle layer - can't afford it anymore," she said.

Since the start of the year, the charity's donations had dropped 30% month on month.

The charity's food bank is open three days a week and supports community members in Frome and the surrounding BA11 area by providing emergency food parcels.